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Data Center Power Use Needs to be Efficient Given the Huge Digital World

Data Center Power

December 20, 2012

Data Center Power Use Needs to be Efficient Given the Huge Digital World

By Ed Silverstein

TMCnet Contributor

Every time a person goes online, there’s additional energy use, given the widespread need for data centers and networks. In fact, data centers represent at least 1.5 percent of the available worldwide energy for use.

“This statistic should raise our concern, and in fact, this power draw has doubled in the last five years and continues to grow about 20 percent annually in part because of the growing popularity and variety of online apps and services,” Jeffrey S. Klaus, director of Data Center Solutions at Intel (News - Alert), wrote in a recent blog post for Forbes.

“We are living in a connected world, and we are tapping into cloud-based services more than ever before,” Klaus added. “And unless you are a technology holdout, you now live in an Internet-centric world where you use multiple smart devices and enjoy instant access to information. And besides the obvious accesses to online resources, there are a growing number of cloud accesses.”

To address the energy needs, IT makers are coming up with new energy efficient tools for data, software and networking products.

Also, major data centers also are realizing they need to better manage energy use. They are using such approaches as micro-level controls. These are suited for individual servers, power distribution units, air-flow controllers, and cooling units. They are also using macro-level controls and policies.

These are suited for racks of servers, rows of racks, and entire data centers.

But even with energy-efficient servers, there has to be optimum utilization. “Power efficiency and optimization calls for an intelligent combination of the automated monitoring of power conditions and the ability to adjust power, temperatures, computer performance and workloads on the fly,” Klaus said.

To understand the massive use of digital communications – and its need for energy use – just consider that “Arrested Development” will soon be offered on Netflix streaming services and reside in the Amazon Cloud – rather than on traditional television.

“This is a game changer both for shows and for data centers,” Info.ServerTech.com said. And if it is successful, there will be more such programming appearing on streaming services.

That leads to some specific changes in cloud data centers and data center power. “It means that more racks of gear, more power to maximize circuits, more fiber, higher needs for uptime, ensured redundancy, and more density in the rack. More power to the data centers,” Info.ServerTech.com added in its report.

That also means, the report says, there should be “intelligent power monitoring and management” to ensure 100 percent uptime at data centers, via: Per Outlet Power Sensing (POPS), cabinet power distribution units (CDUs), and Sentry Power Manager (SPM).